MOVIE REVIEW: Wildly Entertaining, “Sin Island” Will Make You Scream At the Top of Your Lungs

Star Cinema’s ‘Sin Island’ is wildly entertaining, so wild it almost feels sinfully enjoyable. It’s the kind of film that makes you chase your own breath, while being glued on the edge of your seat.

The Gino M. Santos-helmed R-16 movie does not right away explode into chaos. It begins rather almost quietly in an earnest exchange of vows between wedding couple, David (Xian Lim) and Kanika (Coleen Garcia). David is quickly becoming a name in wedding photography, and has his whole family’s support. Kanika, on the other hand, is poised to get her dream of becoming a successful flight attendant, fulfilled.

The family they are starting to build is seemingly off to a bright future. Until an unfortunate incident crushes David’s reputation down–a tiny mistake, but too heavy to send his dream to ruins. Feeling she already lost the man whom she once pledged her lifelong support to, Kanika becomes vulnerable to temptations, and begins to entertain the advances of Stephen (TJ Trinidad), a divorced pilot who has been smitten with her. David, who finds some clues that his wife may be seeing somebody else, allows his frustrations take him into an out-of-town vacation.

It is during these moments that proceedings take a surprising turn, exploding into a burning intimacy with the arrival of Tasha (Nathalie Hart), to their lives.

From this point, the film barely runs out of steam. The narrative gives way to torrid and sultry encounters, that are shot way too imaginatively not to take audience breath away. There is an overwhelming sense of heat in the creative capture of intimate moments between Tasha and David, and David and Kanika, and it creates a fervid fire that burns passionately.

The good point is: these steamy scenes are hardly delivered only to comply with the requirements of the script, they are also fueled with an artistic drive, thereby resulting to a sensuality that isn’t deprived with right motivations.

Coleen Garcia as Kanika is breathtakingly alluring. She articulates her plight so beautifully and eloquently, that in moments where she engages in heated or emotional confrontations, she delivers.

Xian Lim is hot as hell, and that’s not at all a compensational compliment, because his David, more than the gorgeous body and sex appeal, isn’t devoid of a relatable struggle, and Lim gets that across, compellingly.

But the biggest revelation of the film, is Nathalie Hart. Her Tasha is crazy, seductive, dangerous, all rolled into one. She’s the comic effort of the narrative, her one-liners always something to chuckle about. Hart’s instinctive take on the character’s complex characterization, is mindblowingly insane.

For the film’s intent to creep people out, she alone, is a lethal weapon.

To his credit, Direk Gino deserves a commendation for crafting a well-thought film that tackles a delicate subject. Keiko Aquino’s script is smart and riveting at the onset, but Santo’s careful and imaginative direction maneuvered the story to more exciting places in the film.

There are many movies in the past that takes a similar theme, which became sensational and iconic. ‘ Sin Island’ isn’t too pretentious not to hide itself in a cloak, as it fully embraces its generality. Through this, the film takes its audience to a roller coaster ride.

It’s classy, campy, sexy, funny, scary, crazy!

The last few minutes, alone, sends you to a maelstrom of emotions that will surely make scream at the top of your lungs.